'Boruto' Reveals its Own Drunken Fist Technique

One of Naruto's most fondly remembered episodes once had Rock Lee unwittingly reveal a surprise mastery of the Drunken Fist fighting style, and now Boruto: Naruto Next Generations has revealed its own spin on it with Metal Lee's Anxious Fist.

The latest episode saw Metal Lee and his father Rock Lee sparring, and this lead to the surprise unleashing of Metal's raw talent with his anxiety laden Taijutsu frenzy.

In the latest episode of the series, Metal Lee turned to Might Guy in an attempt to help him get over his anxiety (which often leads him to major failure). He was nervous about learning the Eight Gates technique from his father, and Guy told him to face his anxious self. He does this when his father challenges him to a match, and says that Metal needs to land a hit on him to win.

When the match begins, Metal Lee's nervousness causes him to fight and move erratically. So erratically, in fact, that even Rock Lee can't keep track of Metal's moves and attacks. This new erratic fighting style ultimately leads to Metal's victory, and his opening of the first of the Eight Gates.

This unleashing of an unconscious style of Taijutsu mirrors Rock Lee's Drunken Fist debut in the series. In his fight against Kimimaro, Rock Lee taps into this style by getting drunk and this causes his movement to be far more erratic, and less held together by subconscious thought. For now it seems like Metal Lee is better off with his "Anxious Fist" technique, since he doesn't seem to snap out of it so easily. Still, this is a fun way to keep the fan-service train rolling for this series.

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump for 700 chapters. The story follows a young ninja with a sealed demon within him that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The sequel, Boruto:Naruto Next Generations is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and featuring the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations recently even made TV Tokyo's list of Top 5 Anime in sales and profits, coming third in sales and fifth and profits. The anime has been such a success that the Naruto franchise as a whole stills holds a top spot in many anime profits rankings as well. The series even managed to cross 235 million copies of the manga sold worldwide. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations was even given a major bump of approval as it just took over a more familiar timeslot, airing in the same time and day that its predecessor Naruto: Shippuden once did.